Chapter 24
Sly, loaded down with Svetlana's dead weight over his shoulder, led a straining Carmelita---with the unconscious Maria over her own---in a quick trot across the exposed rooftops. Sly nimbly quickstepped along the apex of the sloped, shingled roof, crouching down. Carmelita, breathing a bit heavier now, followed right in his footsteps. "Almost there, my love," Sly whispered, his narrowed eyes watching diligently for the return of the ever-present patrols in the Polarsky compound.
"Stoy!" came the shouted command from the first guard below to spot the two. "Halt!" the guard, a slender lemur woman shouted, drawing her Tokarev automatic from her holster.
"Great," Sly commented with a grimace, then turned to Carmelita, who stared back at him wide-eyed. "C'mon, it's Rail Slidin' time, dear…"
Carmelita goggled at him. "What?" she shot back. "Those guards are armed down there! We won't stand a chance, Ringtail!" Carmelita felt the cold rush of the beginnings of panic in her chest as she adjusted the out cold Arctic Fox over her shoulders while she crouched as low as she could.
"Not so, Love of my Life," Sly answered cleverly, making Carmelita nearly snarl at him. "Okay, no more levity," he added hastily. "Look…our route is in the dark, Carmelita. And…those goons below only saw movement, not us. They have no idea what's up here, okay? So, we wait behind the cover of the rooftop a minute, then…why then, when they get bored---which they will---we make our way to the wire, make with the Rail Slide and we're home. Easy as that."
Carmelita followed his lead, crouching down to hide behind the point of the roof. "Easy as that, huh?" she retorted softly. "It's not like it's just you and I, you know, Ringtail. We've got these two---" she indicated the two unconscious women "---to worry about too, pal."
"True," Sly admitted, grinning as the guards below ran around in a panic, trying to reacquire the shadows they thought they spotted before. "However, sweetheart, their being along actually works in our favor. More weight; a faster Slide."
"Uh-huh," Carmelita replied, clearly not convinced yet.
Sly turned toward her, his eyes narrowing in uncharacteristic sternness. "You knew what you were getting yourself in for, Carmelita, when you joined us," he pointed out. "It's just the way things work sometimes," he added, then grinned. "Think of it this way," he offered her then. "I'm good at this sponatenous stuff by now. I mean, wouldn't I have to be…what with having you---only until recently---breathing down my neck on every caper?"
Carmelita blinked, then shifted Maria across her shoulders to a more comfortable position. She then grinned. "Yeah, I suppose you would at that," she replied, shaking her head. "It's not like I really have much of a choice now, do I?" She watched the milling guards standing about, directing their flashlights---and their pistols!---across the surrounding rooftops, including their own. "Okay, you're right, Sly," she reasoned, understanding, but not liking it one bit. "I'll follow your lead. Let's do this…"
"That's my girl," Sly replied, his eyes and smile telling her he was proud of her. "Shouldn't be but one more---ah! There we go…just as I thought," Sly added, watching the show below. "There they go. C'mon," he told her, then added. "Oh, hey…thought you might like to know that I've got some good hot coffee in the van. And, one cup's got your name on it, sweetheart."
"Okay, Sly," Carmelita replied, getting into the rhythm of his light-hearted approach to danger. "Now, you're talking my langauge."
Sly got to his feet, balancing Svetlana's small curvaceous form across his shoulder. He grinned over to Carmelita, who stood ready with Maria. "No time like the present, eh?" he teased, and jumped lightly on to the downward running telephone line, zipping away in an accelerated rendition of the patented Rail Slide.
Carmelita followed right behind him, her feet precisely balanced over the cable wire. As she whisked down right in Sly's wake, she grinned…realizing that she was actually having the time of her life, enjoying the wind against her face as she zoomed across the darkened compound. She prepared herself a moment later to jump, crouching just before the cable ended, agilely alighting to the right of Sly, Maria still across her strong shoulders. "That was fun," she commented. "But, you still owe me a coffee, mister." She gave him a clever grin and a wink.
Sly laughed as he led her down into the warehouse, and to the Gang's command post/panel truck. "Lucy," Sly softly cried in his cheesiest Cuban accent as he spied their van, "we're home!"
Carmelita couldn't help but grin at the madcap raccoon. "Lucy?" she queried, finally succumbing to a brief giggle or two.
"Eh," Sly commented sheepishly. "I just couldn't pass up the opportunity." He then gently laid poor Svetlana down upon the floor, then indicated Carmelita should do the same with the unconscious Maria. Sly then moved silently over to the van, coming behind where Bentley sat, totally unaware of the two---make that the four---of them. Sly couldn't help himself and banged his fist noisily on the slid-open door. "Yo! We're back."
Bentley squeaked, whirling about in a near panic. "Geez! Don't do that!" the turtle complained, rubbing at his neck which he had wrenched in his panic. "So, everything go off without a hitch?" he asked, still frowning.
"Yep!" Sly confirmed, hooking a thumb over to where Carmelita stood guard over the two Russian girls. "Nothing we pair of Master Thieves couldn't handle," he remarked, grinning over to Carmelita, who grinned with him.
Bentley shook his head…after all, all of Sly's antics were old hat to him. "Right," Bentley replied, looking down at the two. He then looked back at Sly, shaking his head.
"What?" Sly returned, confused by Bentley's behavior.
"What is it about you and beautiful women, Sly?" Bentley asked, gazing down at the two Russian beauties, Maria and Svetlana. He saw the tigress, and then flicked a curious eye at Carmelita. "Let me guess, Sly handled the tigress now, didn't he?" he asked.
"So?" Carmelita replied, crossing her arms before her chest. "What's that matter with that, Bentley?"
"Nothing. Nothing…just a comment," Bentley replied, holding up his hands defensively, grinning. He turned to Sly, and mused aloud, "Hey, if we need one of them to talk, I'd suggest putting that tigeress and Carmelita in a small room together. I betcha she'd get her talkin' in nothing flat…"
Carmelita made a face at the grinning Bentley. "Tonight, everyone's a funny man," she groused. "Hey, if you had to deal with Neyla like I did, you'd carry a grudge too, pal."
Bentley sobered at that. "Yeah, I know," he replied meekly. "Well, I've set up an interrogation chamber of sorts over there," he told them, pointing to the small darkened office in the nearest corner of the warehouse. "Let's get those two in there, and wake them up."
Sly flexed his shoulders wearily. "All right," he stated, frowning. "These two may seem dainty…but they're anything but when you're lugging them around like this." He lifted Svetlana's limp arm up, leaned over and hauled her upright. He then crouched a bit, and hefted her up over his shoulder again. By that time, Carmelita had Maria over her shoulders again. "Let's go," he instructed.
Fifteen minutes later, Maria Foloreva groaned softly, stirring as she regained consciousness. "Bozhoi moi! What has happened to me?" she moaned to herself. It didn't take the quick Arctic Fox long to discern that her hands were securely bound behind her back, that she was sitting up, bound securely in a chair of some sort, and that she was blindfolded to boot! "Hel---mmm," she was about to shriek, but thought better of it at the last moment. She was pleased to figure out that she was still fully clothed, and aside from a lump on the right side of her head, she was fine.
"Ah," came Svetlana's familiar voice in Maria's ears a moment later. "Maria? Is that you? I am very glad to hear your voice, tovarisch."
Maria couldn't agree more! "Svetlana!" she gasped softly with relief. "So, you have been kidnapped too, da?" Oddly enough, the vixen felt strangely affection for the lovely, though arrogant, tigress right that moment…
"Da, Maria," confirmed the unsettled sounding Svetlana. "Are you injured?" she asked next, oddly concerned.
"Nyet, I am fine, thank you," Maria reassured her new friend, her one-time enemy. "And, you, my friend?" She made sure to emphasize the word 'friend'.
"Aside from a pounding headache and a goose egg on the side of my head, I too am fine," Svetlana replied, smiling at Maria's brand-new friendliness. "Are you tied up too?" She bit her lower lip in worry.
"Da," Maria replied sadly. "And, by someone who knows a thing or two about how to tie a girl up." She shrugged in her bonds, but to no avail.
"Da," Svetlana added. "Myself as well, I'm afraid." Svetlana, the younger of the two women, was distinctly unsettled. She disliked being blindfolded and bound…which only served to fuel her very over-active imagination as well. "What is to happen to us, Maria?" she questioned yet again.
"I…do not know, Svetlana," she confessed. "I remember the two of us walking back to our quarters…"
"Da! I remember that too," Svetlana added, nodding her blindfolded head in agreement.
"Then," Maria postulated, thinking. "Then, the last thing I recall was a man's voice, then…darkness." She groaned from the headache she was now experiencing from the throb of the lump on the side of her head.
"Da," Svetlana replied, quivering slightly. "I too heard the man's voice…then a woman's, I think," she added, frowning. "Then, something dark, then light, appeared in my vision, and---wham! I end up here with you." She tried the tightness of her bonds, but quickly desisted as the cuffs chafed cruelly at her wrists. "Maria…I am frightened."
"I know. As am I, my friend," Maria replied, wondering what was to become of them both. She fortunately didn't have very long to wait…
"Good morning, sleepy heads," the two girls heard a pleasant sounding very masculine voice say, just after their sensitive ears heard a door open.
"W-What do you want with us?" Maria demanded, telling Sly that she was the nominal leader of the two.
Carmelita nodded at Sly, then crept noiselessly over to crouch just beside the most unsettled Svetlana's ear. "Who says we want anything from you?" she replied, her voice cold and uncaring.
Svetlana was tired of being afraid! "Who are you? And, why have you detained us both?" she demanded, struggling vainly against her bonds.
Carmelita, her beautiful brown eyes still hard, smiled coldly and gently patted Svetlana's cheek, causing the young woman to recoil. "Who we are," Carmelita informed her, "is none of your business, dearie." She then moved stealthily around to Svetlana's other side. "As to what we need you two for…well, we don't need you personally. Either of you."
Svetlana's pointed ears twitched in her fear, and her frustration. She was used to giving orders, not taking them! "If you do not need us…then release us! Immediately!" Svetlana licked her lips nervously, very much afraid of this woman who held her captive.
Sly, playing the role of Good Thief to Carmelita's Bad Thief, replied. "Sorry, but my 'comrade' here wasn't being entirely truthful, ladies." Sly sat down between the two. "It not the two of you that we want. Now, that much is true. No…it's more who you work for that we're interested in."
Maria smiled a sorry sort of smile. "Trust me, tovarisch," Maria informed Sly. "No one remains interested in Raikon Polarsky long…unless he wants them to."
Carmelita smiled, shaking her head at Maria trying to frighten them with mention of her boss' name. "Yeah, we know who your your boss is, woman," she replied, still the Bad Thief. "And, if I were you, I'd be more afraid of him than you think I should be, 'Comrade'…"
Svetlana interjected, turning her blindfolded eyes Carmelita's way. "You do not understand…he is ruthless," she tried to explain. "Even now, he knows precisely where we are…every moment of every day." Svetlana let her proud head droop to her chest, her dark hair swinging forward.
"Oh, you mean via these cute little GPS units of yours?" Sly questioned civilly. "Well, you needn't worry overmuch about those, my darling girls."
Maria frowned. "Oh? And, I would not because---?" she stated, curious.
"An associate of ours," Sly told her grandly, mysteriously, "has you both snug as bugs in your own rooms right this moment, ladies. Well, as far as Polarsky is concerned you are, I mean…" He grinned over at the two, shrugging when he realized he was wasting his charm on the blindfolded girls. "Ain't technology grand?"
Maria groaned in understanding. "Very clever," she replied, impressed. "Please tell your 'associate' that I am most impressed. It is no mean feat to reprogram our GPS locators."
"I'll be sure to relay your congratulations," Sly replied, grinning over at Carmelita.
"What?" Maria challenged. "Just because we are from Russia does not mean we are computer illiterate, you know."
"Never said you were," Carmelita reminded them both. "But, never mind that. The real question is…are you going to help us…or not?"
"Why should we help you?" sneered the confident Svetlana. She sobered a moment later. "To cross Polarsky is death." She shuddered then. "A slow, painful one…"
"Oh?" Carmelita opined grandly. "So…I take it you two enjoy being Polarsky's personal slaves then, do you?"
"I am no man's slave," retorted Maria, her lips curled in a snarl.
"Oh, really?" Carmelita questioned. "Then…perhaps, you'd care to explain this then?" She nodded to Bentley outside the room, and he started a recording of a conversation from earlier that day.
The two young woman frowned as they listened to their confrontation with Polarsky, ashamed of how they simpered and kowtowed to the huge polar bear, trading their dignity and respect for some guarantee of not being beaten.
Carmelita motioned to Bentley, and he paused the tape. "Now…would you both like for me to continue?" Carmelita asked.
"Nyet," replied a very somber Maria and Svetlana. "Please…do not," Maria added a moment later, frowning. "It is not something I am proud of…"
"Hmm. Didn't think so," Carmelita said smugly.
"So," Sly then responded, Good Thief once more. "Look…we're out to take that slug Polarsky down…and put him behind bars a good long time, where he belongs."
"Yeah," Carmelita chimed in a moment later. "And, I'd think you two would want to see that too, wouldn't you? I know that I for one find men who want to keep woman as slaves repulsive. Don't you both?"
"Da," Maria answered, nodding. "He debases us, does he not, Svetlana?"
"Da," Svetlana agreed, but then frowned. "He does…but what can we do, da? If we protest…he will hurt us both. Maybe even kill us." Svetlana shuddered, remembering the pain of Polarsky's punishments.
Carmelita could tell from the frightened looks on the two women's faces that Polarsky had hurt them before. "Look, we can help you two out of this mess," she pointed out. "But we can only do that if you help us."
"Nyet, we cannot!" Svetlana wailed, nearly in tears, shaking her head vigorously. "Comrade Polarsky is far too powerful. If he ever suspected we betrayed him, he would kill us both. With no regrets at all."
"I see," Sly responded now. "So…nothing either I or my friend can say will prompt you to change your minds, hmm?"
"Nyet," Maria proclaimed sorrowfully. "I am very sorry."
"You're certain?" Carmelita challenged the two. Both women nodded their heads very emphatically. "I can't believe you're both so afraid of this man that you'd both do just about anything…just so long as he doesn't hurt you?"
"Da," both women responded, very ashamed. Maria hung her head, saying, "I am young yet…I do not wish to die, young woman."
"Okay then," Sly chimed in, clapping his hands together in his enthusiasm. Both Maria and Svetlana cringed visibly at the sound. Sly frowned, upset that these two beautiful women were so afraid that they'd debase and shame themselves to escape harm. "So…what would you two say if I told you we had yet another proposal for you to consider?" Sly said.
"We are listening, tovarisch," Svetlana prompted, her ears perking up, canting her head to listen.
"Plan Two has a much lesser chance that Polarsky will ever discover you've been anything other than loyal employees of his. Interested, ladies?"
"Da. But, there is still a chance, is there not?" Maria observed with a frown. "No matter how small, da?"
"True," Carmelita re-entered the conversation then, the Bad Thief to Sly's Good. "But, consider that versus chances you'd stand if you both somehow, say, conveniently don't show up to give that bastard his massage this evening?"
"Nyet! Please! Please do not do that!" Maria yelped, suddenly becoming very pale indeed---and that took some doing for the Arctic Fox, Maria!
"Y-you cannot! We would die a most horrible death!" Svetlana cried, trying to free herself from her restraints. "I do not want to die. Please!"
"Then, you're only choice," Carmelita growled, pressing home her point, "is to help us. Do your part, and we'll make sure that bastard Polarsky never hurts you or another woman again!"
"This is blackmail," Maria stated, as she struggled too.
"Blackmail is such an ugly word," Sly opined with an undertone of humor. "Let's say rather 'a mutual agreement to the betterment of all involved', shall we?"
"It is the same thing," Maria pointed out, though she did give him a small wan smile..
Carmelita leaned over Maria, so she could feel her breath on her face. "It is. So…are you accepting our offer or not?"
The women thought for a minute or so, then sighed and nodded their heads in agreement. "Da," Maria replied begrudgingly, her ears flat to her skull.
"Da. I too agree," Svetlana replied as well, once Maria did so.
"Very good, girls!" Sly crowed. "Okay…first off. Tell us all that you know about de Anillo del Fuego." Sly stood back and grinned, watching the looks of surprise that blossomed on both girls' lovely faces.
"The Ring of Fire?" Maria responded quickly, then frowned, realizing she had given herself away. "We do not know that much. Comrade Polarsky does not trust anyone, you see…so, as such, he has not told any of his lieutenants anything!" Maria frowned, but said no more.
Svetlana, realizing that these two mysterious folks provided her with her best chance of living to her next birthday, piped up. "All we know is that it is very valuable…and, that he carries it with him wherever he goes." Svetlana canted her pretty head, then added helpfully. "I should not try to steal it from him. If you were to try, you will be digging your own grave, tovarisch."
Carmelita snorted then. "Fagh! Who said that we were going to steal the ring, you two?" she told them both rather starkly.
"Excuse me?" Maria asked, shocked into voicing her concern.
"Well, Maria," Sly began, laying on the charm now. "If I may call you Maria? That's a very pretty name, you know." He grinned, then continued. "But…you said it yourself, Polarsky doesn't go anywhere without that ring. So…doesn't it stand to reason, ladies, that you, who are going to give him his massage tonight, would be in the best position to---shall we say?---acquire the Ring?"
"Impossible!" Maria sputtered, her fear spreading like ice in her belly.
"Oh, but we are so dead," Svetlana opined in a hollow-sounding voice.
Sly frowned at their defeatism. "C'mon, girls! No need to get so morose. We've got things covered…let me assure you. In face, we've made an exact duplicate of the ring…oh, with just some minor differences. First off, the emeralds are made out of fine glass. Oh, and the ring itself is constructed of gold-coated base metal…but it looks just like the original!"
"So you say," Svetlana replied, but she did feel the first glimmer of hope that evening.
"That's the spirit," Sly soothed, smiling. "Now, when you go and give him that massage tonight---hopefully your last!---one of you keep watch, while the other swaps the rings. Now, after Polarsky falls asleep, both of you are to simply go to his office, yes?"
"Da," Maria answered hesitantly. "That is what we usually do…afterwards."
"Wonderful," Sly observed. "However, when you two lovelies do that, you'll get interrupted by one of us, who'll take the real ring from your waiting hands. Simple, huh?"
"Do you really think that Polarsky will be fooled by such a simple ruse as that?" Maria scoffed, but inwardly she was beginning to panick.
"Won't matter," Carmelita answered. "Because Polarsky won´t have time to do anything. When that dirtbag used the phone just a few minutes ago, he went and gave himself away, admitting to stealing the ring and killing those guards."
"You've bugged his phone?" Maria questioned, feeling better now about these two and their 'plan'.
"You better believe it!" Carmelita assured her. "So, all we need now is the ring itself, and then it's a matter of placing a call, and having Interpol roll in to bust this thug!"
"That is all well and good," Svetlana pointed out, swallowing hard. "But, what will become of us? Do we go to jail with the others then?" Svetlana's small slender hands trembled.
"Nyet," Sly replied, using the Russian term. "Of course not. We have---shall we say?---friends within Interpol. Well tell them about you, and believe you me, they´ll let you go…scot-free." Sly looked at the two girls, wondering idly what color their eyes might be. "Do we still have an agreement then?"
"Da," they both replied, nodding their heads.
"Alrighty then," Sly said, peeking a look at his watch. "It's time for you two to head back to your rooms. Our acquaintance will reprogram your GPS units once you've gone back inside."
"Understood," the girls replied, albeit a bit hestitantly.
Sly then looked over to Carmelita, who stood behind Maria. He removed Svetlana's blindfold and undid the handcuffs and ropes restraining her to her chair. Carmelita did the same to Maria, who blinked owlishly as her big blue eyes adjusted to the light in the room. "Here's the dupe," Sly told Svetlana, smiling as he discovered her eyes were a dark bewitching brown, laying the ring in her left hand. "The rest is up to you both."
The two stood there, not knowing precisely what to do. Thankfully, Sly prompted Svetlana by giving her a soft appreciative pinch to her beautiful derriere.
"Hey!" Svetlana yelped, jumping slightly, then glaring at Sly. "I will thank you to keep your hands to yourself, you!" She idly massaged the right cheek of her rounded behind.
Maria put a hand over her mouth, stifling a giggle. "Well, Svetlana," Maria opined. "You are forever telling me how young men find you sooo attractive…"
Carmelita shot Sly a withering look, to which he shrugged and grinned. "All right, you two…get!" She pointed out the warehouse's front door imperiously. The two did as they were instructed to.
"All right, Ringtail," Carmelita announced, balling her fist and heading toward Sly, who began to backpedal. "What did I tell you before about that?"
"Now, Carmelita," Sly wheedled, grinning. "Let's not get so hasty now…"
Maria looked to Svetlana as they made their way---stealthily as they could---back to their rooms. "What did that raccoon do to get such a reaction out of you, Svetlana?"
"He pinched my bottom," Svetlana admitted with a grin. "Not that I really minded…that raccoon was very cute. Much cuter than that wretch Arkady…"
Svetlana frowned, thinking. She then turned to Maria. "Did he seem…well, familiar to you, Maria?"
Maria thought about it, then slowly nodded. "Da. Now that you mention it, he did seem somewhat familiar," she agreed.
Then, the two of them looked at looked at each other, and then at the ring Svetlana now held in her hand. Both ladies then sighed tremulously, the import of what they were about to do hitting home just then. "Oh, what have we gotten ourselves into?" Maria moaned, looking over to Svetlana, her blue eyes anxious.
Svetlana shook her head in agreement. "Hopefully, a new and better life, Maria my friend." She watched a patrol move past, then grabbed her new friend's hand and the two rushed inside the headquarters building.